Amputees that wear a prosthetic foot to enhance their mobility must choose a prosthetic foot that is appropriate for their size and lifestyle. Unfortunately, prosthetic feet that are designed for day-to-day activities such as walking are not ideal for performing vigorous exercise. For this reason, many amputees will have different prosthetic feet for different activities. In order to change between the different prosthetic feet when using conventional prosthetics, the amputee must completely remove the foot attached to the leg and replace it with a different foot. This is inefficient, expensive, and may change gait adjustments originally set by the attending prosthetist.
Conventional prosthetic feet are usually made of a plurality of components that are fastened together mechanically or with an adhesive to form a single structure. These are not designed to allow the wearer to replace different components, nor are they engineered to allow the amputee to replace, for example, walking foot components with running foot components without replacing the entire foot.